Ingredients
- 225 g leaven
- 800 g tea for the dough
- 850 g strong white flour
- 100 g wholegrain flour
- 50 g rye flour
- 20 g fine sea salt
Inclusions
- 200 g blackberries or blackcurrants
- 100 g poppy seeds
- 20 g toasted aniseeds, optional
- Honey soy glaze, optional
How to Make It
- The appearance of food and the desire to eat it are indisputably connected, and this loaf is a real showstopper. The dramatic blue crumb is achieved by using butterfly pea flower tea in place of water. The tea is made from a Southeast Asian flower which turns the dough an amazing colour without affecting the flavour. When the ambient method is used, you will get a midnight–cobalt blue crumb, but if you develop the acidity of the dough more using the retarded method, it transforms the bread into a rich violet colour.
- It is an amazing way to demonstrate that the length of fermentation and the resulting changes in pH affects more than just the taste in the loaf. It’s as though the loaf is a giant litmus paper; as the pH increases the colours deepen to purple.
- We grow our own blackberries and blackcurrants in the School gardens and the deep blues and purples set off the berries and poppy seeds beautifully. The option to include toasted aniseeds and a honey soy glaze means that you can match the flavours to the intensity of the colour if you want to.
